Letter 61- Another Transfer Week - our 10th!!

Dear family and friends,

Here are some fun facts: 

After today, we only have 6 transfers left!!

And in 9 months we will be home! 

How is this even happening! Time is flying by! I won't bore you anymore with my words! I will bore you instead with my pictures! Haha! 

Thanks again for taking the time to peek into our lives! We love it here and will miss it here when we "jope (Thai word for finish)!"

As always we love you and we miss you and we thank you for your words, prayers, love, and support.

Love, 

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on)

On to the pictures:

Saturday morning drive to Rayong! Thank heavens for our prescription sunglasses! 

We would be blind without them! 

Inspection day lunch with the Rayong Elders at Humbleburger!

Elders Allred, Casinillo, Westcott, and Hutcheon :)

Waiting in the lobby for the missionaries prior to their house/condo inspection.

Elders Westcott and Casinillo did an A++ job! Their condo was super clean!!

Look how neatly they have their cleaning supplies lined up (separate from the food, of course!)!

Saturday afternoon haircut at Elder Brady's favorite barber shop! 

This is a very sour treat made from the Tamarind plant! 

Here it is on the google! 

This darling beautician made this sweet and SOUR treat and gave us a bag of her homemade goodies! They are very sour, but I like them!! 

Sunday morning, the Relief Society sisters gather for a lesson and discussion in Rayong. 

Here I am with Sister Mary Jean (our Relief Society President) and 

Elder Westcott (our Branch President)! Hello!

Sunday afternoon lunch after church! It was so yummy! As always! 

We saw about 10 of these giant colorful buses in a caravan on our drive home Sunday!

We actually see them all the time and we wonder where they are going and who is on them!!

Sunday evening Zoom fireside! We love to hear from our "departing missionaries." Their devotional, stories, and testimonies are so inspiring. We will miss these great missionaries! 

On my Monday walk to a follow-up doctor's appointment, I noticed this beautiful garden of flowers planted in the roots of these sprawling trees. 

I love the efforts being made to beautify this walkway along the klong. 

You can see the water taxi in the distance. 

Tuesday afternoon, we traveled to Ramkhamhaeng to check out the Sister's old Condo. The Elders will be moving into that Condo soon. We met up with the Sisters to spend some time visiting Sandy whose husband passed away not long ago. Sandy shared some sweet experiences with us. She has never prayed before and decide to pray for peace and comfort because she is missing her husband so much. And the very night that she prayed, she had a dream where she was able to see and talk to her husband. It gave her so much comfort. 

We ordered a pizza from Sandy to take home for dinner and we did our favorite pose with the Sisters! 

Our beautiful friend, Sandy. 

Tuesday afternoon, driving home, we saw these beautiful rays of sunshine peaking through the clouds. 

I'll have to check in with my mom to be sure, but I think her mom used to call these rays of sunshine - angel's slides! 

There is a motorcycle, car, and bike in front of us on a BUSY freeway!! 

The motorcycles are everywhere!!!! 

No pictures on Wednesday! What?? I guess we are jumping to Thursday - we ran into Elders Nash and Bird who left Thursday evening! We had to take a picture of these great Elders who served in Bangkok as APs at various times. The temple grounds and temple are being deep cleaned during the two week temple closure. (That explains the blue tarp in the background). 

Elder Brady helps the Elders weigh their luggage! 

The "pose" with the Bradys, Calls, and Elders Nash and Bird!

How would you like this to be your bathroom scale? Sister Call found this in the apartment they just moved into! Haha! 

Sisters Colver, Cobia, and Cobia stop by for a visit! Sister Colver recreates Elder Brady's standing in the corner pose! Haha! 

The Bradys and the Sisters! Mariah Cobia (left) flew in today from Bangladesh to meet her triplet sister (Sister Cobia) on the right! They will fly home tonight back to Utah. Sister Colver (center) also flies home soon but will spend a little more time in Thailand with her mom (who is Thai) before flying home to Nevada. We will miss these darling, fun sisters! 

We spent nearly two hours Thursday afternoon telling stories and laughing! Oh how we love these missionaries! And it was fun to meet Sister Cobia's triplet (well one of the triplets . . .)!

Friday morning - transfer day! And new arrival training day! 

It's breakfast time in the mission home! The Senior office missionaries handled the breakfast and Sister Nok made us a yummy lunch (I was so busy eating seconds and thirds, I forgot to take pictures!!!) Pictured above: Sister Makilan (arrived from the Philippines) hugs her new companion, Sister Cameron (who heads back to Australia at the end of this new transfer).

So many missionaries are gathered in the mission home! 

Me and the Bangkok Sisters! Sister Polsan (from Thailand) and Sister Furlan (from Canada)!

Look who is back in town! Elder Parker - but we call him Jonathan now! Old companions Elder Jones and Jonathan are happy to see each other! 

Time for training! Elder Arganbright and Sister Makilan are the only new missionaries this transfer! 

Elder Brady trains the missionaries on all things housing! 

It's time to take pictures on the mission home balcony. 

Each transfer we take pictures of the new missionaries with their companions.

And then we send their parents a "Safe Arrival" letter and the pictures! 

It's Friday afternoon! It's been a long, wonderful, exhausting day! Departure/transfer/arrival days are always long wonderful and exhausting. That actually wraps up the 10th transfer here in the mission! We only have 6 more transfers to go!!! TIME IS FLYING! I am feeling this desperate need to eat mango sticky rice every single day! 

That's it for this week! 

Thanks for reading! 

We love you!

Goodbye!

Letter 60 - Meanwhile, Back in Bangkok - Mango Sticky Rice and Pickleball

Dear loved ones,

You will be relieved to know that this post is back to the normal too many pictures as opposed to last week's WAY TOO MANY PICTURES!! 

While traveling last week around Thailand was wonderful, it is good to be back "home" in Bangkok. This week was filled with lots of yummy food, pickleball, friends, missionaries, and of course, work in the office. For more details, scroll on down to the pictures! 

As always we love you and miss you and THANK YOU for your notes, love, support, and prayers! 

Love, 

Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on)

Monday - we worked in the office! But of course we needed to eat lunch, so we headed to Terminal 21 to eat Cinnabon with the Sisters! Sisters Jenkins, Polsan, and Brooks - our Bangkok Sisters! 

Terminal 21 is such a beautiful mall (as are most of the malls in Thailand). The malls are so fancy, some have themes, and the air conditioning always feels great! Terminal 21's theme is a different city from around the world represented on each floor! 

While most everyone wanted a Cinnabon for lunch, I wanted to try a mango smoothy from an "all things mango stand!" The Smoothie did NOT disappoint! And I took a mini-bon home to share with Elder Brady for breakfast the next day! 

Before lunch, I took a Monday morning walk down the Klong! I love those Bangkok blue skies! This time of year, there can be a lot of pollution that makes the skies grey. No Monday morning blues for us today - only the skies were blue!  

Back at the annex after lunch, I had to stop and get a picture of the workers way up at the top of the temple. The temple is closed for two weeks for cleaning. It gets cleaned from top to bottom, inside and out! These workers were hanging from repelling lines and washing the outside of the temple! 

Elder Brady said to me, "did you get the airplane flying overhead in your picture??" I didn't know, so I quickly took another one! 

And then I zoomed in!!!! And do you see it?? How cool is that?? The workers way up there with the airplane!!

I zoomed into the second picture and there is the airplane again!!! So cool! And you can see the water spraying off of the temple as the workers power wash the building. 

Monday night was pizza night! And it was so good! 

Jessica and Kaitlyn met us for pizza and then came over for a movie night! I did not get a picture of us at movie night in the apartment, but if you look close you can see you can also see my favorite Elder and our favorite YSAs in this picture of my favorite flowers!! 

We watched A Man Called Elder Brady - I mean A Man Called Otto! Haha! 

I know . . . I know . . . I have taken this picture many times, 

but you know I cannot resist a photo of  beautiful bougainvillea! 

Tuesday morning, we headed to some missionary house inspections. 

Elder Brady is over houses and bikes! 

Elders Bergstedt and Wingrove, our Bangkok Zone Leaders did a stellar job cleaning their condo. They live in one of the smallest condos so we were proud of their efforts to tidy up! 

Elders Cypers and Sae Wang really blew our minds! They decluttered, cleaned, and even scrubbed the dust off of the top of the fridge! We were super impressed and they earned some extra plusses! 

After inspections, we hopped on a songthaew and headed to the mall for lunch! 

Elder Brady was entertaining the passengers with his "gang mag" (very good) Thai! 

He even broke into a Thai song for the passengers! 

All roads lead to Pepper Lunch! This was a first visit for two of the Elders! 

Everyone loved it!

Mixue ice cream was the perfect dessert! 

On the train ride home, we got a video call from Kevin! We didn't want to disturb the other passengers (who were loudly talking on their phones), so we shared air pods, whispered quietly, and listened to Kevin as he told us about his day! 

I saw online that there was going to be a total lunar eclipse in Thailand! 

And then I forgot about it! 

Until it was almost finished! So, we ran outside to the 6th floor balcony where I got a couple of shots, but my camera really couldn't capture what the eye could see. Plus it was nearly finished. 

I zoomed out for this beautiful view from the roof! 

Here is another view from the 6th floor balcony of the Annex (where we live). 

Wednesday afternoon, the office ladies met and went to lunch to say good-bye to Sister Stepp (front left)! We will be so sad to see her go! She and Sister Meeker (in the front) work in the West Mission Office. Sister Call and I work in the East Mission. I love these dear sisters and will miss them both (Sister Meeker leaves a the end of April). Sister Call will be here in the East for the rest of our mission! Yay! Sister Stepp picked KFC for her good-bye meal! And we were all happy to go! KFC is elevated dining in Thailand! I am not kidding! It is good and you can get a delicious meal for less than $3!

In honor of all who read our entire blog last week, I purchased 3 servings of mango sticky rice. 

Elder Brady and I ate one serving for dinner Wednesday night 

because we are grown ups and can eat whatever we want!

Thursday morning, I ate mango sticky rice for breakfast. Did I mention this is less than $1 per serving???

I don't know how I will ever leave Thailand! 

Thursday morning, this picture (on the left) arrived in our messenger inbox! Sister Colver! hahahaha!! For the 3 people who read the blog, you may remember this silly picture of Elder Brady in an elevator (from a couple of weeks ago). Elder Brady was inspired by a someone he saw in an elevator the week before standing in the corner (as pictured). Sister Colver was inspired by Elder Brady and her companion sent us this picture. I had to create a side by side to remember this forever! 

Thursday morning pickleball with the East Mission Office Missionaries and some young moms from the Bangkok International Ward. Jen, Sister Call, Tessa, and Sister Brady. It was hot, but fun! 

More power washing of the temple! 

Thursday evening, we went to Smizzle Burger to eat . . .smash burgers! 

This yummy burger has a spicy peanut butter sauce to die for!!! 

The Bradys and the Stepps (who leave 4 days!!). We have been meaning to go out for a bite with the Stepps for a year now and we finally did it in the nick of time! 

They had some fun stories to tell! It was a good time! 

Friday - back at work in the office! No pictures of our PB&J sandwiches that we ate for lunch! 

And that is a wrap! Thanks again for reading!

We love you!